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As building professionals, you may be required to have a basic understanding of structural technology to perform structural design analysis and calculations for your projects. 

Unfortunately, most structural design software isn't designed for residential architects -- which is why, as an architect, you've likely faced these issues:
- Most structural engineering software is too elaborate for architects to use
- They are expensive, as they are loaded with different features you're never likely to use
- You often need to dedicate many hours to understand or become familiar with the software

Additionally, while there is plenty of simpler software available, you often need to use 3+ tools to help with designing different materials or to spend a long time manually to make your entire design work.

In this article, we will be walking you through how to easily set up your structural calculation for common structures in residential houses in ClearCalcs within minutes.

_Looking to try structural design software right away? You can open one with ClearCalcs in under 2 minutes and [sign up for our free 14-day trial.](https://clearcalcs.com/signup)_

Want to find out the exact steps you'll need to go through in order to create your structural calculation? Keep reading!

## What do you need to get started with structural design

Here is what you need to get started with your structural design calculations. 

### Your drawing plan
Generally, the structural design process begins with the design blueprint of the residential house being built. This will enable you to identify the relevant members involved in the construction and select the most suitable materials that can safely uphold the structure. 

![[BLOG] residential-architect-plan.jpg](https://clearcalcs-prod2-cms.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/BLOG_residential_architect_plan_707fb60e09.jpg)

The most common members you can design in ClearCalcs:
- wood beams like roof headers, floor joists, rafters, those for load bearing wall removal, etc.
- wood columns like posts for decks, stud walls, or even lally columns
- footings such as spread footing or pad footing, and pier footing for a deck

### Your project setup
In ClearCalcs, your set of calculations (like beams, columns, and footings belonging to the same structure such as a residential house) is grouped in a project tied by the project name, job number, client name, address, and building standards. 

![[BLOG] residential-architect-project-set-up.jpg](https://clearcalcs-prod2-cms.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/BLOG_residential_architect_project_set_up_319659822e.jpg)

To create your project:

**1. Identify your building code**
When you sign up to ClearCalcs, you will be automatically assigned a default building standard based on your selected country of origin. 

For example, if you're an architect from the United States, you will be assigned the US building standard, and your calculation will default to the International Building Code (IBC) 2018. 

You can change the building standard applicable to your project once you have identified the specific member you want to calculate for.

**2. Input your address**
This feature currently only locates the project in the Google Map. Future integration will include automatic calculation of wind load specific to your project.

**3. Set your preferred sections (optional)**
If you already have specific material (wood or steel), manufacturer types, or species you will be working with for your project due to clients' requirements, you can [set your preferred sections](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/56-how-to-use-preferred-sections-and-autosize) so you can save time to quickly access the list of your favorite sections in your calculation.

## How to set up your first structural calculation 

Now that you're ready with your residential layout and project information. Here's how to get started with your first calculation. 

**1. Identify the structure you're designing**
Let's say you are designing a residential deck comprising four main structural elements of deck joist, deck beam, deck post, and pier footing. You can start with your calculation by [adding a new calculation](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/132-creating-new-calculations) to your project and choosing[ Wood Beam to ASD or LRFD Requirements: Wood Joist Calculator](https://clearcalcs.com/calculations/us/timberBeamASD). 

![[BLOG] residential-architect-wood-joist.jpg](https://clearcalcs-prod2-cms.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/BLOG_residential_architect_wood_joist_986e0225be.jpg)

_Note: Not sure which to use? Based on our user data, it's most common to use ASD for Wood and LRFD for Steel._

**2. Input the key properties of your member**
This generally includes the key geometry (eg. beam plan length) and the support conditions (fixed, pinned, or roller support).

_Note: Need more info about the different support types? Read our support guide on [how to enter beam supports in ClearCalcs](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/148-how-to-enter-beam-supports-imperial-units)._

![[BLOG] residential-architect-key-inputs.jpg](https://clearcalcs-prod2-cms.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/BLOG_residential_architect_key_inputs_4cd574139b.jpg)

**3. Input loads**
Easily enter loads to be factored and analyzed on your calculation. In ClearCalcs, you can add different loading types in combination to your member. 

![[BLOG] residential-architect-load-input.jpg](https://clearcalcs-prod2-cms.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/BLOG_residential_architect_load_input_16be0a4898.jpg)

**4. Select your material type**
Once you've finished entering the geometry and loads of the calculation you want to analyze, you can evaluate if your calculation passes satisfactorily by selecting your desired type members in any of our materials libraries.

![[GIF] traffic lights.gif](https://clearcalcs-prod2-cms.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/GIF_traffic_lights_dfd73d1754.gif)

The Member Selector will automatically summarize your governing checks to make sure your calculation passes in green or yellow (red means fail)! 

## What else can you do with ClearCalcs?
What else can you do in ClearCalcs once you have created a calculation? Here are a few things:

### Link the reactions of your loads with other load-bearing members 
The problem with manually doing your design calculations is that anytime you work with two or more load-bearing members, you need to update your calculations every time you make changes upstream or downstream. 

With ClearCalcs, you can [easily link reactions between beams, columns, and foundations](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/24-linking-reactions-between-beams-and-columns-load-path-tracking) as point loads or line loads where applicable. And the loads will be dynamically tracked through the structure in the same project. 

![Load linking between beams and columns](https://clearcalcs-prod2-cms.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/load_linking_98297dfb69.jpg)

If the top calculator's reactions change, the loads being inherited onto the lower calculator will update automatically. No need to copy and paste reactions between calculations! 

### Export your calculation for submittals to permit reviewers
ClearCalcs [export feature](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/23-exporting-calculations-and-member-schedule) enables you to either export the entire project or select a specific calculation to export as a summary. 

![[BLOG] printout-example.jpg](https://clearcalcs-prod2-cms.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/BLOG_printout_example_c5f754db1c.jpg)

The report automatically includes the governing checks of each calculation as well as clear assumptions such as the design code, references, etc.

_Ready to start calculating in ClearCalcs? [You can use the account for 14 days for free](https://clearcalcs.com/signup), with no commitment required. Need ClearCalcs for a one-off project? Subscribe to our month-to-month plan and cancel anytime, no questions asked._



How to easily set up your structural calculation for common residential structures with structural design software like ClearCalcs.

Structural Design for Residential Architects: How to Get Started

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In residential house construction, a retaining wall is required when there is a significant slope on the property that is being built on, and support is needed to hold back a sloping section of soil.

Primarily, the function of a retaining wall is to resist the weight of soil pushing against it, and the design of it needs to ensure deep enough foundations and strong enough structural components. One of the most challenging aspects of designing a retaining wall is accurately understanding [the impact of the soil properties on the retaining wall calculations](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/200-how-to-design-a-sleeper-retaining-wall-in-cohesive-soil).

Our Head of Engineering R&D, Brooks Smith, shared how you can use ClearCalcs to solve your [sleeper retaining wall design calculations](https://clearcalcs.com/calculations/au/retainingWallSleeperCohesive). We showed you how to keep your parameters as simple as possible while ensuring your calculations are accurate, make conservative assumptions to make your calculations work, and how you can easily link reactions between the sleepers and the retaining wall.

[Watch the full webinar recording](https://www2.clearcalcs.com/videos/retaining-wall-au).

How to Design Sleeper Retaining Wall to Australian Standards 4678-2002 & 2159-2009 with ClearCalcs

Sleeper retaining wall design to AS 4678-2002 & 2159-2009

Aerial photography of rows of houses by Blake Wheeler

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# About Dynamic Analysis

[Dynamic Analysis](https://dynamic-mt.com/) is a boutique civil and structural engineering firm based in Billings, Montana. The company focuses on offering specialized consulting for residential and low-rise commercial projects.

We recently caught up with Sam, Dynamic Analysis’ Principal and an experienced engineer in mining, transport, and manufacturing construction. 

# The Challenge

According to Sam, Dynamic Analysis generally deals with an equal split of designing for new builds - whether they are additions, remodels, or entirely new buildings- and reviewing repair plans. 

“Our workflow is generally drafting a model of what we’re building, and then breaking them into sizing beams and foundations before using a program to determine environmental loading for wind and snow.”

While the company has used a structural design analysis and calculations software in addition to its own Excel spreadsheets before, Sam said, one of the limitations the team encountered was that the structural members are not tied together. 

“We’ll go through each structural member and go back and forth between drafting and running calculations. When there’s a clash in size, we would go back, reiterate through the building again.””The [product we used] was so cheap before that it just made tolerating the bugs and issues fine, but, when [the product we used] updated their pricing, all of a sudden it didn’t make a lot of sense.”

# How ClearCalcs helps

For Sam and his team, after starting to use ClearCalcs late last year. ClearCalcs has become the tool they use for almost all of their projects.

“We are juggling 7 to 9 projects right now with many more coming in. Most of them, small stuff, anything from people just wanting to open up a bearing wall and put a beam in which [ClearCalcs] has been pretty handy for, and then to just full new residential houses.”

“The usability of the software has been nice. It is very clear to see what the software is doing when it comes to the calculations.”

## Linking Loads Dynamically 

One feature that Sam found most valuable in ClearCalcs is being able to [link the load path dynamically](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/24-linking-reactions-between-beams-and-columns-load-path-tracking) from one structural member to another. 

“Easily the worst part when using [the previous product] is having to update the calculations if we make any changes and having that roll through everything.”

Before using ClearCalcs, Sam and his team usually generate a printout that gave them individual dead loads, live loads, snow loads, and wind loads for each member. 

“So anytime there’s a change, you got to go back, start over and redo the first calculation, get those loads, pull up the next calculation, read over from one screen what those load reactions were, and enter them individually. It was just a massive time suck to make one small change.”

With ClearCalcs’ load linking feature, reactions between members as point loads or line loads are dynamically tracked, so the loads inherited into the lower member are always updated automatically.

“Just the simple feature of being able to link load is a really big time-saver,” Sam said.

## Automatically Generated Loads

Having the option to use presets in ClearCalcs’ calculations was also a useful feature for Sam and his team. 

For example, getting access to different presets like ridge beam, roof rafter, or ceiling joist with prefilled settings in [wood beam calculations](https://clearcalcs.com/calculations/us/timberBeamASD) means they can save time in their projects.

“Being able to be specific about what type of beam you’re using is really nice. If we’re sizing a Ridge Beam, it just automatically throws in what our snow loads are. All we need to do is assign the width of the building and then pick our beam; that’s the only two inputs it requires. It’s already got all the loads in there, and it figures out the tributary area and knows what forces are coming down on it. It just takes like  30 seconds.”

“It’s not something I ever really thought I needed, but it’s a handy feature.”

## Helpful Reports

The ClearCalcs’ automatically generated and standardized reports have also been indispensable to Sam and his team.

“We generally use the printout for our internal checks. When someone puts together a calculation, and it’s ready for review, we run through and look at what assumptions they’ve made in their calculations.“

“We find ClearCalcs report way more helpful than some of what we’ve seen in the market. For example, [with the previous product], I’d print out a report, and I just had no idea if it worked or not. It basically just puked out a ton of information, and I find myself asking, is this okay or not?”

In contrast, having ClearCalcs printouts break down our calculation into all the different failure modes and into what’s governing or where it’s failing is very valuable to Sam. 

“Especially for repair plans, then we can really demonstrate if we had got an issue, we can just run through existing conditions and say, okay, this is this type of failure or bending failure. When we run this member through with these loads, we’re seeing we’re at 400% capacity.”

“So everything checks out that this thing is failing in bending, we need to make something stronger.”

“We also keep a little catalog of all of our calculations. Depending on the jurisdictional area, they’ll sometimes require a calculation set for a permit plan review, so we’ll use those.”

Dynamic Analysis needed a new direction for their structural design calculations and ClearCalcs offers them what they needed and more. 

Dynamic Analysis uses ClearCalcs as their all-in-one tool for engineering needs

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In typical house construction where standard roof framing is involved, the ceiling is constructed using a combination of wood joists and beams that run across the length and width of the ceiling. The 2015 International Residential Code (IRC) currently regulates the design and construction of roof and ceiling systems to ensure they are designed correctly to provide adequate support required by the imposed loads.

While the conventional frame-style ceilings typically follow a standard framing process with few surprises, what happens when your design isn’t standard or prescriptive?

Our resident structural design expert shared how you can feel more confident when designing custom roof and ceiling designs in this webinar. You'll learn how to use ClearCalcs to provide supporting design calculations for your permit review and approval process. We also shared tips and tricks on keeping your design decisions in-house, making design calculations the easiest part of your job.

[Watch the full webinar recording](https://www2.clearcalcs.com/videos/roof-ceiling-construction-webinar).

Learn more about how you can feel more confident when designing custom roof and ceiling designs and how to use ClearCalcs to provide supporting design calculations for your permit review and approval process.

How to design wood roof members and ceiling joists to International Residential Code (IRC) Section R802

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# About High Plains Engineering

Located in Weld County out of Denver, Colorado, High Plains provides both structural and geotechnical engineering expertise for residential, commercial, and agricultural clients. 

“A lot of our clients are residential people coming in. They'll want to build a house. So they'll come in and they'll have like a sketch up of the layout that they want. So we put together the architectural plans and the structural plans, and then we'll go out and do the geo-tech as well.“

“We do a lot of pre-engineered metal building foundation. We also have a lot of agricultural clients up in Weld County, people who are building outhouses, pull barns and whatnots. So a lot of wood structures.”

# The Challenge

Megan, who recently joined the High Plains team, came in with the wealth of her experience in commercial buildings. One of the highest priorities right now is increasing the efficiency for her team. 

Being able to do designs quickly, Megan says will make a lot of difference to their workflow at High Plains.

## Ease of use and doing things faster 

For example, when training younger engineers, being able to to get them to go into ClearCalcs and learn to design quickly will be a big plus. 

 “We have engineer drafters who want to get more design experience. So being able to say that ‘hey, I want you to design this beam” instead of telling them what the beam design is and have them draft it is top priority for us.”

“That way we’re not wasting a ton of time going through designs, for example, what should take 30 seconds is taking 30 minutes.”

## Cloud-based for access anywhere, anytime

So far, being able to access ClearCalcs anywhere because the software is cloud-based is a major plus for Megan, especially as she looks to the future with her evolving role at High Plains. 

“So what I did when I first tried the software, I created a test project. And then I sent out an email to my whole team and say, ‘hey, I created this test project. Go in and play with it’. It was nice that no matter where we were, like today, we’re getting a ton of snow, so pretty much everybody’s working remotely. So it’s nice being able to have the ability for everybody to go in online and see each other calcs.”

## One-stop engineering software for everyone

Looking ahead, Megan aims streamline the use of ClearCalcs for the company’s entire operation. This means having not only engineers use ClearCalcs but also drafters and designers as well as reviewers so the entire QA & QC processes are streamlined and more efficient. 

“Hopefully I can get the entire team on the same page. What we want is one software that we can go to, to do 90% of our calculations.”

And most importantly, Megan believes having an inclusive software that is easy to learn and use for everyone is going to be the key for the team as High Plains continue to grow. 

“You know, the majority of the people at our company, we’re all about the same age. But what happens when, if, we hire somebody that’s 15 years older than us who’re set in his ways, or what happens when we hire somebody right out of school, who doesn’t necessarily familiar with the ins and outs of all software programs. So just the ease of learning the program is going to be top priority for when we grow as a company.”

Megan and her team at High Plains Enginering & Consulting recently adopted ClearCalcs as part of the company-wide initiative to do things better, so we sat with Megan to understand how ClearCalcs came to be the solution for her team, why did they chose us and if ClearCalcs is solving High Plains’ problem. 

High Plains takes a forward-looking approach to improving its engineering team with ClearCalcs

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Engineers rely on tracking load paths regularly when designing structures. 

Conventionally, load paths are calculated manually by hand or via spreadsheet. For example, when you want to increase or decrease the size of an upstream member, you need to look at the reactions on the spreadsheet or paper, and manually type or copy paste those reactions down the load path, which is both a massive time sink and highly prone to mistakes as revisions are made.

## What is load path?
A load path is basically the direction in which consecutive load is passed through connected members from the highest point all the way down to the footing system. 

In residential house construction, for example, a continuous load path is important because it helps redistribute dead, live, and wind loads, and transfer these forces from the roof to the foundation as depicted in the figures below.

![[BLOG] load-path-figure.gif](https://clearcalcs-prod2-cms.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/BLOG_load_path_figure_0400ae08c6.gif)

## Typical examples of load path in residential structures

- Linking a joist to beam as line load
- Linking a beam to beam as point load
- Linking a beam to column as point load
- Linking a column to footing as point load

To view how to link the above members of different loads. [Watch the full webinar recording. ](https://www2.clearcalcs.com/videos/load-path-tracking-webinar)

Learn tips to easily determine the load path in a structure, and find out how you can easily link reactions between beams, columns, and foundations in ClearCalcs.

How to dynamically track load paths through a structure.

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Follow these 3 steps and you’ll be engineering confidently in ClearCalcs in no time. If you'd like to get a full tour of ClearCalcs and all its features, [take a quick video tour](https://www2.clearcalcs.com/learn-with-clearcalcs). 

The 3 steps to ClearCalcs success:
- Create your first project
- Create your first calculation
- Export a calculation
 
In less than ten minutes, you'll have produced your first beautiful PDF report, and be ready to start learning advanced tricks like [linking reactions between columns and beams](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/24-linking-reactions-between-beams-and-columns-load-path-tracking), [swapping between materials](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/25-how-to-change-materials-for-example-swap-templates-between-timber-and-steel), or [adding your team](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/28-adding-users-to-your-account).

# Step 1: Create your first project
First things first, let's create your first project. ClearCalcs works by grouping sets of calculations (for example beams and columns) into projects tied to any name, job number, or address you like, so they're easy to find and manage.

For now, **just click the big green 'Create a New Project' button on the homescreen**. 

This will take you to the project details screen where you can specify a project name and address and start creating calculations. 

On the Project Details screen, you'll also see boxes for project defaults and preferred sections - these are great time-saving features, but we'll worry about them later!

Once you've created your first project and given it a name, you're ready to create your first calculation!

# Step 2: Create your first calculation

## Choosing a Calculation
ClearCalcs has a wide and growing range of calculations ( send us your suggestions!). To add a calculation to your project, **click the 'Add New Calculation' button in the sidebar** which will open up the new calculation selector screen. From here, you can **click any calculation you'd like to add it to your project** - the new calculation will automatically load and you will see your new calc highlighted in the sidebar showing it's currently active.

![[GIF] create-new-calc.gif](https://clearcalcs-prod2-cms.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/GIF_create_new_calc_65e0b60947.gif)

If you're not sure what to create, we suggest following along with our simple beam analysis calculation tutorial, but our engineering calculations help section has tutorials for plenty more.

**A Quick Note on Presets**
Some calculations (for example beams) have an added optional step after selecting the calculation where you can set a handy time saving 'preset'. 

![[BLOG] residential-architect-wood-joist.jpg](https://clearcalcs-prod2-cms.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/BLOG_residential_architect_wood_joist_986e0225be.jpg)

All of these presets use exactly the same calculator, the only difference is that they change some time-saving fields as per the building standards (for example, floor joists are set as repeating members so they benefit from strength sharing). If you don't want to use these presets, just use the 'Generic' option.

## How to Use a Calculation
Once you load the calculation up, you'll be presented with the details panel where you can easily rename the calculation and view the basic usage notes and assumptions. You can dismiss this window by scrolling down or clicking the '^ Details' button on the right.

## Entering Data
From here, depending on what calculation you chose to create first, the exact fields you're presented with will differ, however, the great part about ClearCalcs is that all calculations follow the same easy to follow format - to get a quick result there are generally only three sections you need to worry about:

- **Key Properties** - generally includes the key geometry (eg. length), type of member currently being analysed, and support/restraint conditions
- **Loads** - easily enter loads to be factored and analysed, and link reactions with other members
- **Summary** - simple traffic light results showing % utilisation and diagrams

With these three sections, it's generally easy to get a calculation result in less than a minute. Using a beam as an example, simply specify a beam length, the support conditions (for example, if you want to cantilever), and the loads. The calculation and diagrams will automatically update and show you the pass/fail status of the beam as you work. 

If you're ever unsure about how to use a specific field or calculation, [simply click the field label in question](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/22-checks-references-conditions-and-assumptions) to get full references, checks, and assumptions, or click the help button on the bottom right of the screen to view find calculation specific tutorials, or submit a support request to our team (we love feedback!).

**Do I Need To Use The Other Calculation Sections?**
Advanced users can dive into more advanced criteria and modification factors using some of the collapsed sections (just click to open them up), but ClearCalcs calculations generally adopt a common/conservative default for these modification factors so you can confidently get a fast result.

## Getting a Calculation to Work
Once you've finished entering the geometry and loads of the calculation you want to analyse, you can continue to edit fields until your calculation passes satisfactorily. For selecting members in any of our materials, **[click "Autosize" to to automatically set the most efficient size](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/56-how-to-use-preferred-sections-and-autosize)**, or **[click the "Select..." button to access the member selector](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/26-quickly-finding-the-best-section-with-the-member-suggestor)** summarising results and letting you drill down to your desired selection. (You can also swap materials, but we'll talk about that in advanced tips!)

![[GIF] traffic lights.gif](https://clearcalcs-prod2-cms.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/GIF_traffic_lights_dfd73d1754.gif)

Once your calculation passes, the governing check at the top of the screen will show green or yellow (red means fail!) and you're now ready to export! 

# Step 3: Export a calculation report
Congratulations! You're now ready to export your first report to PDF!

All you need to do is select the 'Export' button to begin the process. From here, you can either export the entire project or select a specific sheet to export, as well as toggle several advanced print settings If you would like a one-page print, just select 'Summary' print mode. **For now, just accept the default settings and click Export to download your report!** 

The report should download as a PDF to your computer which you can then email to a client or print.

Congratulations! You've just produced your first professional PDF calculation report!

If you didn't set it up earlier, you can add your organisation's logo and name by going to the Settings tab on the homescreen, or edit how your name appears on the print out by clicking your user profile on the bottom left of the screen. 

# What to do next
Once you're up and running with your first few calculations, the fun really begins! ClearCalcs was created to make design calculations the easiest part of every engineer's job. There's a lot of cool things to try out, and you can find them all in our advanced tricks help section, but we'd suggest starting with these three:

- [Link reactions between columns and beams](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/24-linking-reactions-between-beams-and-columns-load-path-tracking)
- [Swap between materials (eg. change from timber to steel)](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/25-how-to-change-materials-for-example-swap-templates-between-timber-and-steel)
- [Find your preferred section faster with preferred sections and autosize](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/56-how-to-use-preferred-sections-and-autosize)

Hungry for more? Check out our [advanced tricks section](https://support.clearcalcs.com/category/72-advanced-tricks), view detailed [tutorials for engineering calculations](lhttps://support.clearcalcs.com/collection/6-engineering-calculations), or view some help[ webinars and videos on our YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqxAVCYc_ORPnUmQqELwY6w). We absolutely adore feedback and we'd love to hear about your first experience with ClearCalcs, and any suggestions you may have for us. Drop us a line at hello@clearcalcs.com!

Follow these 3 steps, and you’ll be engineering confidently in ClearCalcs in no time. 

3 simple steps to start your first structural calculation with ClearCalcs

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In second grade, Helen Watts declared that she wanted to be an engineer and build things. With a passion for turning design on paper into structures and buildings, Helen and Nathan Powelson, who also knew from a young age that he wanted to go into engineering, make up the structural expertise leaders at [Criterium Engineers](https://criterium-engineers.com/).

# About Criterium Engineers

Founded in 1957 and now one of the US-leading structural engineering consulting firms, Criterium Engineers helps building owners, homeowner associations, real estate investors, and contractors understand the buildings they own, manage, or purchase. 

In Helen’s own words: “We do a different bunch of core things at Criterium. One of them is what you call a traditional design shop, and then we also do reserve study for condominium associations, as well as building inspections.”

# How Criterium Engineers supercharge their design workflow with ClearCalcs

Across its offices, the company reviews about 200 engineering designs annually, 75% to 85% of which are done in ClearCalcs. 

“When structural things come up, it’s my job to make sure everyone in the organization know about it.”

One of Helen’s role as the structural expert leader is to allocate structural design work to the team within the organization. The design query could come externally from customers, or internally from Criterium Engineers’ many offices around the country, and the designs can vary from a straightforward to complicated.

## Speeding up routine design analysis

“The majority of our calculations, unless it’s something very odd, are done in ClearCalcs.”, Nate said.

According to Nate, in a lifecycle of the project, a client may approach Criterium and say, “Hey, I want to do this to my building. And we’ll say, okay, we can do some of that, but we can't take out all the supports in your house unless you want to run [steel beams](https://clearcalcs.com/calculations/us/steelBeamASD) and turn it into a moment frame. And they're like, oh, that sounds expensive. We thought this was going to be pennies on the dollar.”

“And then we take what we do in ClearCalcs into CAD, or have someone drafted it, send it to the client.”

Nate concurs to the power of ClearCalcs in speeding up their work as a team.

![how_to_change_materials_clearcalcs.gif](https://clearcalcs-prod2-cms.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/how_to_change_materials_clearcalcs_e927842b24.gif)

“Here [at Criterium Engineers], we seem to get one request a week: ‘Hey, [if I put this steel beam on the bottom of this 200 year old timber](https://support.clearcalcs.com/article/25-how-to-change-materials-for-example-swap-templates-between-timber-and-steel), how much strength do I get?’ Getting a program to do that versus spending hours writing through that is something that we're highly interested to save time.”

## Handling complex design and calculations

Every once in a while, Helen said, a complex design comes her way that her team wants her ‘to fix’.

“For example, just about a week and a half ago, Nate said to me, ‘wow, this is another really weird connection.’ I'm like, yeah, there's another one coming. And the only way that I can evaluate them is by using tools like ClearCalcs.”

“We had a guy who wanted to put a roof deck over the entrance to his little residential building.  He wanted basically no post and VMS (visible means of support). So we gave him one option, and we gave him another one which is a whole lot simpler and cheaper. We run this all of this scenario in ClearCalcs.”   

“Anyone can design a new building, it takes a real engineer to figure out how to get new and 120 year old framing to play well together.“, Nate quipped. 

“I also like the speed at which you can do the what-ifs with the utilization checks”, Helen added.

![utiization-checks.gif](https://clearcalcs-prod2-cms.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/utiization_checks_08e98d1649.gif)

“For example, a client wanted to get rid of the rafter ties, so Nate and I got on Zoom and I said, what if we do this and the utilization check lights went all red. What if we stick it this way? And we got the green light. I like the way the painful stuff are now speedy”.

## Reviewing projects across teams 

Structural engineering review is an important part of the project workflow at Criterium Engineers. Every project is reviewed by another engineer before it goes out.

“Criterium is really big in that nothing goes out without getting a second review,” Helen says.

Doing the design in ClearCalcs and being able export the printout  means our calculations are legible and other engineers can review it.

![printed-report-example.webp](https://clearcalcs-prod2-cms.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/printed_report_example_32fcf1ffcf.webp)

“Part of the reasons why we went with ClearCalcs was when we looked at the various programs, Nate liked the output on ClearCalcs and how the platform explains what was going on. It meant it was easier for him to review my works and vice versa.”, Helen says.

“I like that I can follow ClearCalcs on my own”, added Nate. 

“Nate and I work really well together because I come from construction and he from the design side of it. So, we’re very yin and yang, and I think it makes our design much stronger when we work together”.

# What has improving their design workflow with ClearCalcs done to Criterium Engineers?

Criterium has more than 30 franchise offices across the United States and Canada, comprising mostly of mechanical, electrical and civil engineers. 

“And if they need to know anything about structural engineering, they will normally ask Nate or me.”

Using ClearCalcs has really transformed the way Criterium team collaborates with each other. In addition to the webinars they host to share knowledge with the franchise offices, Helen said the ability to run analysis collaboratively on ClearCalcs online means there is a cross pollination of knowledge that makes the engineers in her team smarter.

“If you want to go and do something, I’ll say, let’s get on Zoom, bring up ClearCalcs and I’ll talk you through it.”

This month, we sat with Helen and Nate, delving into the back-story of this powerful duo and how they are changing how engineering is done, turning it into a collaborative team process with the help of ClearCalcs. 

How ClearCalcs help Criterium Engineers save time and learn better as a team

Image showing ClearCalcs platform to calculate tributary width

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thumbnail_[BLOG] webinar-tributary-load-width.png

[BLOG] webinar-tributary-load-width.png

This month we kicked off ClearCalcs Learn Hour, a series of learning webinars about how you can accelerate your design calculations and analysis with ClearCalcs. Hosted by our Director of Customer Success, Connor Conzelman, and led by our resident Structural Lead for North America, Laurent Gérin, this month we spoke about load width and tributary width.

Determining the correct loading on your structure is one of the most important steps to getting an accurate and safe design, but calculating the correct tributary width and entering it into software can be a real pain. In this webinar, we covered the following points to help you get started with applying load width in your design calculations:

## What is tributary width?
Applying loading via a distributed / tributary area is useful when designing floors, roofs, or other beams supporting slabs. The vertical or gravity loads are usually distributed one-way between regularly spaced joists or rafters, as depicted in the figure below.

![Image showing tributary area on wooden structure](https://clearcalcs-prod2-cms.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/what_is_tributary_width_b5ca7eabf9.gif)

In the webinar, we discussed common examples of tributary width in residential design, such as: 
- Skewed floor framing
- Joists
- Skewed Beam
- Split Load

[Watch the full recording of the webinar to learn more.](https://www2.clearcalcs.com/videos/load-tributary-width).

If you don't want to miss our next ClearCalcs Live Hour, make sure you're signed up to our webinar updates!


Learn how to easily calculate a broad range of tributary and load widths you may encounter on your projects, and how to use the incredibly flexible load entry tools in ClearCalcs to ensure you get a great design quickly. 

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